(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is trading sharply higher on Monday with the recent optimistic assessment of the economy by the central bank and fairly good corporate results triggering some strong buying across the board.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is up 74 points, or 1.6%, at 4,668. The broader All Ordinaries index is trading at 4,679, up 74.6 points, or 1.6%, over its previous close.

On Friday, buoyed by an optimistic assessment of the economy by the RBA, the Australian market had moved up sharply. While the S&P/ASX 200 index ended up 86 points, or 1.91%, at 4,594, the All Ordinaries index rose 85.2 points, or 1.89%, to 4,604.4.

In the banking space, Commonwealth Bank of Australia is gaining about 4.5%. The bank said cash earnings for the September quarter totaled A$1.4 billion, following good income growth and continued costs management. Its impairment expense charge was about A$700 million for the three months ended September 30, with credit quality trends generally moving in line with expectations. Total impaired assets increased slightly to 88 basis points of gross loans.

Among other key stocks in the banking space, ANZ Bank is up 2.3% and National Australia Bank is up 3.4%, while Westpac Banking Corporation is down in negative territory with a modest loss.

Among top miners, Rio Tinto is up 0.8% and BHP Billiton is trading with a 0.7% gain. Newcrest Mining is trading stronger by about 3.3%.

Orica is gaining nearly 6.5% on good results. The firm said its net profit rose to A$541.8 million for the year ended September 30, up A$2.2 million on the prior year. Net profit after tax before material items was A$646.1 million, up A12.9 percent on last year’s A$572.3 million.

The company declared a final dividend of 57 cents, 20 cents fully franked, up from 55 cents in the prior year. Total dividends were 97 cents, up from 94 cents in 2008. Orica expects earnings growth to continue in 2010.

Bluescope Steel, Fortescue Metals, Incitec Pivot and Lihir Gold are all trading in positive territory with notable gains.

Energy stocks Woodside Petroleum, Santos, Oil Search and Origin Energy are trading higher by 1.5%-2%.

In economic news, the number of jobs advertised in major newspapers and online fell 1.7% in October, after two months of growth, and shows the economic recovery remains vulnerable. Overall job ads totaled 133,709 in the month, down from 136,070 in September, with newspaper job ads falling by 1.4% and internet job ads declining by 1.8%.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics is due to publish housing finance data for September at 1130 AEDT.

In the currency market, the Australian dollar opened higher. In early trades, the Aussie was quoting at US$0.9229-US0.9234, up from Friday’s close of US$0.9134-US$0.9137.

Among other stock markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Singapore, Korea and Taiwan are trading notably higher, while New Zealand and Japan are up with modest gains. Markets in the region had closed notably higher on Friday.

On Wall Street, a subdued reaction to monthly employment figures kept the major averages near the unchanged mark on Friday. The market remained weak initially on the heels of the release of a report from the Labor Department that showed employment fell by more than expected in the month of October. However, it moved higher later on in the day on bargain hunting and ended with modest gains.

The Dow closed up 17.5 points, or 0.2%, at 10,023.4, the Nasdaq advanced 7.1 points, or 0.3%, to 2,112.4 and the S&P 500 rose 2.7 points, or 0.3%, to 1,069.3.

Major European markets saw little change Friday. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 and the German DAX index edged up 0.3% and 0.1% respectively, while the French CAC 40 Index finished with a very small loss.

Crude oil dropped on Friday as discouraging jobs data raised energy demand concerns. Light sweet crude for December moved to US$77.43, down US$2.19 on the session.

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Posted in Categories: Australia, Eurozone, Japan, New Zealand, Releases, Stocks, USA.

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